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Craft Brewing And Distilling News for January 16, 2013

•Portland, Oregon’s Widmer Brothers Brewing (part of Craft Brew Alliance) is kicking off the year with five spring releases and a packaging update. New offerings will include Columbia Common Spring Ale, a recurring seasonal, and Chocolate Russian Imperial Stout ’13, a spinoff of Widmer’s KGB Russian Imperial Stout made with cocoa nibs. The other three releases—O’Ryely IPA, KGB Russian Imperial Stout and Raspberry Russian Imperial Stout—are returning “fan favorites.” Widmer has updated the packaging for all five brews, in an effort to better distinguish them as seasonal offerings. In other company news, Widmer has changed the name of its Series 924—which features Pitch Black IPA, Nelson Imperial IPA and a variety of limited releases—to the W Series, and has also retired its Alchemy Project range. Starting this year, the Alchemy beers will resurface as part of Widmer’s Reserve Series.

•Firestone Walker Brewing is set to enter the Texas market next month. On February 19, the Paso Robles, California-based brewer will enter the greater Austin area via a partnership with Brown Distributing. In March, Firestone will begin rolling out into the Dallas-Fort Worth region—including Arlington, Irving, Plano, Allen, Frisco and Garland—via a partnership with Andrews Distributing. Firestone will initially launch its DBA, Pale 31, Union Jack, Wookey Jack, Double Jack and Walker’s Reserve labels in both markets, in packaged formats and on draft.